JORDI CRUYFF

Expertise:

Club football management, transfer policies, contract negotiations, style of play, international football, Spanish-Dutch-English

Experience:

Jordi is a former professional football player, with 9 Dutch and 9 Catalan international caps. He is the current Sports Director at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Jordi was born in Amsterdam in 1974, a special year for Dutch football. The fact that his name was related to the Catalan patron Saint Jordi sparked immediate public debate during a politically turbulent time in Spain, where his father Johan Cruyff played for FC Barcelona.

Like his father, Jordi had a talent for football. He enrolled in the AFC Ajax youth academy at the age of seven, before moving to Spain as a fourteen year old to continue his football education at the FC Barcelona cantera. A skilful creative midfielder, Jordi climbed up the academy ladder to make his first team debut in the 1994-1995 season. After two seasons at FC Barcelona and the 1996 European Championship with the Dutch national team, Jordi moved to Manchester United to play four consecutive seasons under legendary manager Alex Ferguson. He was part of the historically successful squad that won three Premier League titles, the FA Cup, two Charity Shields, the Intercontinental Cup and the 1999 UEFA Champions League.

In 2000, Jordi returned to Spain to sign for Deportivo Alaves, where he played three successful seasons reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 2001, which was lost in overtime against Liverpool FC. His next move to Espanyol lasted just one season, after which a series of injuries kept him from playing football for two full years. Following up a two season stint at FC Metalurh Donetsk, Jordi ended his career in the role of player-coach at Valletta FC (Malta) in 2010, before starting his full-time career in club management.

After an initial stint as technical director at AEK Larnaca (Cyprus), which featured in the Europa League group stage, Jordi was appointed sports director at Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2012. In this role, Jordi sparked a rebirth of the club, winning three consecutive Israeli national titles, the Israeli Cup and the Toto Cup and leading to one UEFA Champions League group stage and two UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.